Edgar j



(No Model.)

B. J. LEVEY.

PLAYING CARD.

No. 339,066. Patented Mar. 30, 1886.

WITNESSES 6 IIQYENTOR flWv/Xi w ATTORNEYS.

lhyiTnn STATES PATENT tries.

'EDGAR J. LEVEY, OF XEXV YORK, X. Y.

PLAYING-CARD.

Serial No. 164,573.

CIFN A TION forming part of Letters Patent No. 339,066, dated March 30,1886,

(No sprcixncns.)

T aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be itknown that I, EDGAR J. LEvEY, of the city, county, and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in PlayingOards,of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to that description of playing'cards frequentlyknown as squeez ers, owing to the compact and secure manner in whichthey may be held in the hand of the player and their freedom fromexposure, and in which the cards have miniature symbols and figures orsigns denoting their suit and denomination on or near the one corner ofthe marginal portions of their faces. These miniature designs, or pips,as they are sometimes termed, are very apt, owing to their smallness andslight difference in shape, also owing to their sameness of color incertain of the suits, to lead to misconception on the part of the holderof a hand as to the character or suit of the cards. Thus, where theminiature symbol is a heart, itis very liablein the hurry or confusionof sorting the cards or of playing to be taken for a diamond, both ofwhich are usually red, or a diamond to be taken for a heart, or, in theblack suits, a spade for a club, or a club fora spade. Especially isthis the case where the players sight is defective.

The object of my invention is to remedy this liability to error as tothe particular suit to which the card belongs, so that a player mayreadily distinguish at a glance not simply the color of the suit, butthe particular suit to which the card belongs, as denoted by the symbolin the corner of the card on the marginal portion of its face.

To this end my invention consists in combining with the symbol of a suitany mark which shall distinguish it from a suit of the same color and itfurthermore consistsin the particular application of a distinguishingmark to the marginal symbols of the cards, as hereinafter specificallyset forth as one mode of carrying out my invention.

This distinguishingmark, with which a player from experience soonbecomes familiar, may be varied in character or shape and color.

I attain my object by having a distinguishing mark or emblem applied toone suit only of the red color, and the same or a different mark oremblem of a different color, if desired, applied to one suit only ofblack color, leaving the symbols of the other suits solid or unmarked.

The accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification,illustrate some of the modes of carrying out my invention in practice.

Figure 1. represents a face View of four cardsthat is, one for each suitin the packarranged as the same would be held in the hand by a player,and having a distinguishing-mark applied to the symbols only of certainof the suits, and with said distinguishingmarks upon the symbolsthemselves.

A, in Fig. 1, indicates a small heart, or one of the red suit of cardsin the pack, with its symbol I), a miniature heart, in the usual place,but with a white or other colored dot or mark, 0, in the symbol, todistinguish the suit to which said card belongs from the other suit oflike color in the packthat is, diamonds which, as shown for the card B,has its symbol 1) left solid or without special mark. A like distinctionis shown for the two cards 0 D in Fig. 1, that pertain to the two blacksuits. Thus (1, which represents spades, has its symbol b distinguishedby a dot or mark, 0, in it, while the card 1), which represents clubs,has no distinguishing-mark applied to its symbol. Now, supposing all thecards of the different suits to be thus or similarly distinguished bymarks applied to the symbols of certain of the suits only, the playerwill soon become f. miliarwith the distinction, and thus be preventedfrom mistaking one suit for another.

By the term distinguishing marks, as applied to or combined with themarginal symbols of the cards, I desire it to be understood that I donot restrict myself to any partioular character of distinguishing marks,which may be almost indefinitel y varied, and be plain, ornamental, oremblematical, ranging from a mere dot or line to a well-definedarbitrarily-selected figure of regular or irreg ular shape, and of anydesired color or colors.

I am aware that in playing-cards which are provided in their marginswith miniature representations of the card it has been proposed todistinguish between the two suits of the same color by mutilating' orbreaking the mar ginal line of the miniature card to indicate one ofsaid suits, and to leave it unbroken in the other. My invention differsfrom that above referred to in placing the distinguishingmark upon thespot symbol itself, which 'enables me to make the mark larger and moreeasily distinguished.

I am also aware that it is old to place a distinguishing-mark in thespot symbols of a card, as set forth in the patent granted SaladeeDecember 18, 187 7 but such was intended to indicate the rank of thecard in its particular suit, and did not serve to distinguish one suitfrom another, as all the suits were marked in the same way; but

